CIX has announced the recipients of its 2026 Startup Awards, recognizing 14 Canadian companies selected from more than 370 applicants and vetted by 94 leading North American investors.
Spanning Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary, the cohort reflects the breadth of Canada’s innovation economy, with startups tackling challenges across healthtech, climate, defence, fintech, and martech. More than 75 percent of recipients have female founders or C-suite executives, while over half are impact-driven ventures.
Among the Calgary-based recipients are Cashew, LiORA, and Eavor.
Emerging category recipient Cashew is rethinking how brands gather consumer insights, building a faster and more accessible alternative to traditional market research. Its platform enables organizations to collect real-time data and make quicker decisions, challenging an industry long dominated by legacy players and slow, expensive processes.
Co-founded by Addy Graves and Rose Wong, Cashew was named Best Enterprise Company at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.
Early category recipient LiORA, formerly Environmental Material Science, develops AI-driven sensors that provide real-time insight into soil and groundwater conditions. The technology is designed to help industries better understand subsurface environments, enabling more informed decisions across applications ranging from environmental monitoring to infrastructure and resource development.
Growth category recipient Eavor continues to gain international recognition for its closed-loop geothermal technology, which delivers reliable, zero-emissions baseload power without relying on naturally occurring underground heat or water reservoirs. The company was recently named to the 2026 Global Cleantech 100, underscoring the growing global interest in next-generation geothermal solutions.
All three Calgary companies will present live at the CIX Summit on March 25, 2026, in Toronto.
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